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Topic: Completion List 2017

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel is the first non-Pokemon game I've beaten since I've beaten Persona 4 in 2012. Didn't realize that I've spent so little time gaming the past 5 years until now.

1. Fable II (17 hours)2. The Legend of Heroes - Trails in the Sky (75 hours)3. The Legend of Zelda - Breath of the Wild (127 hours)4. Shoot1Up (45 minutes)5. FF IX (45 hours) 6. Ys Origin (17 hours) - This series never misses. At least not since the PSP era.7. Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles - I'd thought this game was a bit easy... until I got to Dracula... particularly his 3rd form. Richter is awesome and I'm glad I finally finished the lead in to the greatest game in the series.

8. Suikoden (30 hours) - Can't believe I never gave this series a chance... straight on to Suikoden II...

11. Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies - Athena is best girl. Hands down. If I was a woman and into cosplay, she'd be my new go-to character. Love her design, love her story, and love her personality (okay, her personality is basically an ever-so-slightly less goofy Maya, but it works). This was also my first exposure to Apollo... kinda glad I didn't play his games.

6. Trails in the Sky, the 3rdThis is gonna sound weird, but from a gameplay perspective, this might be my favorite Trails game so far. I know, I know, Trails is played for the story and characters, but because 3rd runs the characters at such a high level (and equips them appropriately), there are such great opportunities for effective minmaxing and build variety. It never got old, for me. Not only that, but this game has 16 (SIXTEEN!) playable characters! The amount of variety in party-building is intoxicating, and each character is unique. The good news is, the final dungeon of the game requires the use of all 16 characters, so you'll be able to fully experience each one.Some may complain about the dungeons all being "samey" and a lack of traditional exploration, but the game was SO GOOD in every other important area (customization, strategy, writing, music) that I really don't think it's a big complaint. I basically can't think of anything I didn't like about Trails 3.

Final Score: 10/10

Up Next: finishing FFXII The Zodiac Age, then moving on to Tales of Xillia 2

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"You know, you're pretty cool too, Arvis. You like good music, good games, and good tennis." - Divingfalcons

6) Magna Carta 2 - Finished right around 35 hours in. Character levels were in the mid 60s (only grinded once, for a brief period). Reviews couldn't have said it any better: This is a decent, competent RPG. It borrows heavily from several JRPG tropes, but it doesn't feel entirely unoriginal. Story is barely interesting enough. The characters are all OK by me, but there is no real character development, aside from Juto (the main character). There is a lot of back tracking, too. Can't tell you how many times the Mare sent me to the Undersea Tunnel. Unfortunately, fast travel isn't a thing until close to the end of the game. There were some side quests I could have finished up towards the end, but it would have required even more back tracking. No thanks.What really saves the game is the battle system. It flows nicely, and pulling off high-damage chains is satisfying (although the animations for the strongest special attacks are WAY too long..). It's also pretty cool that each character has 2 fighting styles. I think if the battle system were crap, I wouldn't have bothered finishing the game. That being said, the game is rather easy overall. Only a handful of fights were truly challenging. Thankfully, it's not so easy that it gets boring.Also, a lot of the music in the game is surprisingly good. Including the Abazet track I posted a while ago.

7) Modnation Racers - Finished the main game. The last race was surprisingly easy, compared to some that preceded it. I've unlocked the majority of goodies. Overall, not a bad kart racer. Can't compete with the likes of MK, but it's decent. What really separates it is that you can make your own tracks. My son and I have a lot of fun with that.

My list is definitely smaller this year... I think it's because I played a lot of shorter games last year. I also didn't finish several games I'd started this year. I'm at least gonna try to finish Wild Arms 2 before this year is out.

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"Movies are better than people. You don't have to smell who you're watching." ~ Baby Cakes

12. Ys I & II Chronicles + - Ugh. Ys I was a fine enough game if a little unintuitive. Had to consult a guide a few times, one because I didn't talk to a character the correct number of times. Ys II on the other hand was a nightmare of way too much backtracking, a few bosses that made the experience feel like a bullet hell shooter instead of an action RPG, and more of that unintuitiveness (though thankfully to a lesser degree) I did enjoy how the two games were tied together in the end, and the story definitely feels like it will inform the rest of the games even if they're not all directly related. So ultimately I'm hoping the suffering was worth it.

Plus now I've reached my goal of finishing 12 games before the end of the year. And the way things are going right now, that's probably all I'll be finishing this year.

Defeated the Hell Wyrm, got the Kumbha and Zodiac Escutcheon, beat every Mark except for Yiazmat, got all 13 Espers, and finally beat the story over the weekend. Did Trial Mode up to about 80. That is far, FAR more than I ever expected to do with this game and I loved every minute. All I really want to do now is fill out the Bestiary and that's it.

Honestly.... this is one of the best RPGs I have ever played, and almost certainly Top 5 mainline Final Fantasies. The art design is the best in the entire franchise (stupid main character costumes notwithstanding) and the world-building is second to none. While the main plot falls off sharply after a bit and disappoints overall, the exploration, gameplay, customization and growth mechanics make this one a true classic and not to be missed. I'm already excited about a second playthrough, as there are myriad Challenge Run opportunities due to the game's rich diversity of mechanics and customization options (although I won't be utilizing the level 90 NG+).

Final Score: 10/10

Up Next: Tales of Xillia 2

If I can finish that one before the end of December, I'll have hit my goal of Finish One Full RPG Every 2 Months, which seemed impossible to me.

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"You know, you're pretty cool too, Arvis. You like good music, good games, and good tennis." - Divingfalcons

1. Fable II (17 hours)2. The Legend of Heroes - Trails in the Sky (75 hours)3. The Legend of Zelda - Breath of the Wild (127 hours)4. Shoot1Up (45 minutes)5. FF IX (45 hours) 6. Ys Origin (17 hours) - This series never misses. At least not since the PSP era.7. Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles - I'd thought this game was a bit easy... until I got to Dracula... particularly his 3rd form. Richter is awesome and I'm glad I finally finished the lead in to the greatest game in the series.8. Suikoden (30 hours) - Can't believe I never gave this series a chance... straight on to Suikoden II...

9. Borderlands (way too long) - Stupid game with a stupid end that I stupidly stayed up all night once last week to finish. Good Riddance.

13. Xenoblade Chronicles - Wow, what a ride! Loaded a 20 hour save from forever ago 12 days ago, and 62 hours of play time (not including the hour and a half I wasted on my first attempt at the final boss) I finally finished it. Thank the heavens for Melia. Could not for the life of me figure out the final boss' second form until I just took control of Melia and had her spam lightning and then force topple with Starlight Kick whenever the thing tried to use its Talent Art.

Ending surprised me in a good way. The "stage" leading to the final boss had me thinking "Oh God, not another one of THESE* endings again!" but the actual final reveal was a nice turnaround on the classic. And boy does the game have some amazing music!

8) Singularity - A decent FPS. Takes and mixes ideas from Resident Evil; Bioshock; and Call of Booty. The shooting mechanics are fantastic, honestly. What separates the game a bit is that you gain a Time Manipulation Device (TMD), which can do some pretty neat things. ...Although, a lot of its use outside of combat feels too staged. The story plays out in a 'meh' way, but the concept behind it is actually interesting: Back in the 50s, Russia finds a new and extremely rare metal, that basically allows a lot of crazy shit to happen (including time manipulation), with terrible plot-enhancing side effects, of course.The difficulty actually decreases as you progress. About 2/3 of the way through, the game decides to make it rain, and starts offering you TONS of upgrade currency. Said upgrades are over-powered, in my opinion. You basically become a super soldier, even with only level 2 (out of 3) upgrades. Coupled with a late game TMD upgrade that allows unlimited use, and pretty much nothing can stand in your way. All in all, not bad. I had fun.

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"Movies are better than people. You don't have to smell who you're watching." ~ Baby Cakes

9) Dark Sector - Finished just in time for the new year. I've actually beaten it before, but that was several years ago. Overall, it's a decent 3rd person shooter, with the addition of the "glaive" weapon/mechanic, which itself is what makes the game worth playing. The story is cliche, and the character models in cutscenes are strangely stiff, but the game play is solid.

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"Movies are better than people. You don't have to smell who you're watching." ~ Baby Cakes